Dr. Halimah DeShong

Dr. Halimah DeShong is currently the University Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies.  She is a Senior Lecturer and former Head of the IGDS:NBU. She is an experienced feminist researcher, published in the areas of gendered and gender-based violence, feminist methodologies, anti-colonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing and analysis. She is the co-editor (with Professor Kamala Kempadoo) of Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality (2020) and is currently completing another book length manuscript on violence, the coloniality of gender and change. Her scholarly work appears in a wide range of peer-reviewed academic journals and books. She is joint editor of four special issues on Feminist Methodologies; Men and Masculinities; and Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in the Caribbean. Dr. DeShong has advised Caribbean governments on gender-based violence policies and laws, is the author of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) National Gender-based Violence Action Plan and has jointly designed a GBV/HFLE curriculum for post-secondary school students in SVG (with Dr. Tonya Haynes). She was also the lead researcher and author of the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey on violence against women in Grenada.

Dr. DeShong served as an Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations. She was SVG’s expert, during the country’s two-year tenure (January 2020 to December 2021) on the United Nations Security Council on Women, Peace and Security; Children and Armed Conflict; Youth, Peace and Security; and the Protection of Civilians. In addition to this, she also covered the situations in Mali, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, and West Africa and the Sahel.
 

Animating her teaching, public service, scholarship and outreach is a concern for ending the enduring effects of complex systems of violence.

Qualifications

PhD – Sociology of Gender and Violence, The University of Manchester (Commonwealth Scholarship)

MPhil – Social Policy, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus (Welcome Trust Fellowship)

BA – History with Literatures in English (First Class Honours), The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus (Stabex Scholarship, Awarded by the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).

Research Areas

Gendered violence

Feminist studies of crime and violence

Feminist epistemologies and methodologies

Qualitative research

Anti/de-colonial feminisms

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate:

GEND 1103 Theoretical Concepts & Sources of Knowledge

GEND 2005 Crimes by and Against Women: Theories, Evidence and Popular Portrayals

GEND 2015 Gender, Sexuality and Race in Caribbean Culture

GEND 2201 Women’s Studies 1: Introduction to Feminist Theories

GEND 3701 Men and Masculinities in the Caribbean: Theoretical Perspectives

GEND 3702 Men and Masculinities in the Caribbean: Contemporary Issues

Graduate:

GEND 6720 Feminist Methodology and Epistemology

GEND 6102 Data Collection and Analysis: A Gendered Approach

Modules Taught in the Caribbean Institute for Gender and Development (CIGAD):

Feminist Approaches to Knowledge Creation

Men and Masculinities in the Caribbean

Gender-based Violence in the Caribbean

Applying the Tools of Gender Analysis

Select Publications

Select Books and Monographs:

Kempadoo, Kamala and DeShong, Halimah A.F. (Eds.) Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality. Ian Randle Publishers, 2021

DeShong, Halimah A.F. Women’s Health and Life Experiences: A Qualitative Research Report on Violence Against Women in Grenada, 2018. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women), the Caribbean Development Bank and the CARICOM Secretariat. 2020. https://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/materials/publications/2020/8/womens-he...

Guest Editorship (Special Issues of Academic Journal):

DeShong, Halimah A.F. (Guest Editor). “Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in the Caribbean: Transdisciplinary Engagements.” Part II Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 45 No. 2. 2019. (In Press) (8 articles)

DeShong, Halimah A.F. and Charmaine Crawford. (Guest Editors) “Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in the Caribbean: Transdisciplinary Engagements.” Part I Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies Vol. 42 No. 3, 2017 (Print) (7 articles)

Crichlow, Wesley, Halimah A.F. Deshong and Linden, Lewis (Guest Editors). Special Issue: “Fragility and Persistence of Dominant Masculinities.” In Caribbean Review of Gender Studies. Issue 8, December 2014. (Print) (9 articles)

Kempadoo, Kamala, Halimah A.F. DeShong and Charmaine Crawford (Guest Editors). Special Issue: “Caribbean Feminist Research Methods for Gender and Sexuality Studies.” In Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, Issue 7, December 2013. (Print) (6 articles, 1 interview)

Select Articles/Chapters in Peer Reviewed Journals and Edited Books:

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “CARICOM Model Legislation on Domestic Violence: Negotiating Love, Intimacy and Abuse in Caribbean Law.” In CARICOM at Forty-Five: Caribbean Regionalism after Brexit. Edited by Patsy Lewis, Jessica Byron and Terri-Ann Gilbert. Kingston: The University of the West Indies Press. (In Press).

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “Caribbean/Anti-Colonial Feminist Methods for Analysing Talk and Text in Research on Gender-Based Violence.” In Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality. Edited by Halimah A.F. DeShong and Kamala Kempadoo. Ian Randle Publishers, 2020: 449-462.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. and Kamala Kempadoo. “Locating Methodologies in Caribbean Research in Gender and Sexuality.” In Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality. Edited by Halimah A.F. DeShong and Kamala Kempadoo. Ian Randle Publishers, 2020: 1-26.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “The Language of Violence in the Caribbean: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis.” In Caribbean Crime & Criminal Justice: Impacts of Post-Colonialism and Gender on Crime. Edited Katharina J. Joosen and Corin Bailey. London: Routledge, 2018: 123-138.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “The Will to Forget”: Silences and Minimisations in Men’s Talk on Violence.” Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies Vol. 42 No.3, 2017, 86-102.

Haynes, Tonya and Halimah A.F. DeShong. “Queering Feminist Approaches to Gender-based Violence.” Social and Economic Studies, Vol 66, No. 1 & 2. 2017, 105-131.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. and Tonya Haynes. “Intimate Partner Violence in the Caribbean: State, Activist and Media Responses” Global Public Health (Journal Impact Factor 2.017 – Web of Science) (Routledge: Taylor & Francis) Vol. 11, Iss 1-2. 2016, 82-94.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “Policing Femininity, Affirming Masculinity: Relationship Violence, Control and Spatial Limitations.” Journal of Gender Studies (Routledge: Taylor & Francis) Vol. 24, No. 1, 2015. 85-103.

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “Feminist Reflexive Interviewing: Researching Violence against Women in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.” Special Issue on Caribbean Feminist Research Methods for Gender and Sexuality Studies, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, Iss.7, 2013: 1-24

DeShong, Halimah A.F. “What Does It ‘Really’ Mean to Be a Wo/Man?: Narratives of Gender by Women and Men.” In Love and Power: Caribbean Discourses on Gender, 106-149.  Edited by Eudine Barriteau.  Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2012: 106-147.
 
DeShong, Halimah A.F. “Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Violence: A Feminist Analysis of Vincentian Women’s Experiences in Violent Heterosexual Relationships.” Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies Vol. 36 No. 2, 2011: 65-96.